Joint JD/MA of Public Policy and Administration
Program Directors:
- Leah W. Jackson, Associate Dean and Professor, Baylor Law School
- Timothy Burns, Graduate Program Director, Department of Political Science
Admission
Students are required to fulfill admission requirements for both the Law School and the MPPA program. The MPPA admission requirements can be found on our Admissions page. The Baylor University School of Law web site contains the most current information about the admissions standards of that school.
Program of Study
Students receive twelve quarter hours of credit on a pass/fail basis toward their JD upon successful completion of the MPPA degree requirements and twelve semester hours of credit on a pass/fail basis toward their elective requirements for the MPPA upon successful completion of JD degree requirements. Thus, JD/MPPA students complete 114 quarter hours of Law and 24 semester hours of Political Science course work. A minimum of one-half of the semester hours required for the master's program, exclusive of thesis credits, must be in courses numbered at the 5000 level. Neither degree may be awarded until all course work is complete. Therefore, all requirements of both schools must be finished before the candidate may receive either degree.
A. Upon commencing law studies, the student is required to take the first three quarters consecutively. After the first three quarters, students may set individual schedules for law school and the MPPA courses. In the Law School, JD/MPPA students must complete the following elective courses:
LAW 9359 Local Government, Constitutional and Federal Liabilities
LAW 9365 Municipal Law
B. JD/MPPA students must also fulfill the following Political Science requirements:
Core Courses (any five) 15 sem. hrs.
PSC 4300 Political Behavior
PSC 4305 International Law
PSC 4307 Environmental Law
PSC 4310 Politics and Communication
PSC 4316 Grand Strategy
PSC 4322 Seminar in Public Administration
PSC 4330 Urban Political Processes
PSC 4335 Public Discourse and Foreign Policy
PSC 4342 Courts and Public Policy
PSC 4346 Intelligence and Covert Action
PSC 4350 Political Parties
PSC 4355 Power, Morality, and International Relations
PSC 4385 Diplomacy
PSC 5310 Seminar in American Politics
PSC 5321 Seminar in Public Law
PSC 5323 Research Design and Research Methods
PSC 5330 American Political Development
PSC 5340 The American Founding
PSC 5344 Seminar in Comparative Constitutional Law
PSC 5345 Seminar in American Foreign Policy
PSC 5350 Seminar in Presidential Rhetoric
PSC 5391 Reading Course (Public Policy and Administration topics)*
*Reading Course may only be taken once
Elective Courses (any two) 6 sem. hrs.
(including at least one 5000-level graduate course) selected from:
- Courses listed above.
- Other Political Science courses.
- Relevant graduate-level courses in cognate fields (e.g., Accounting, Economics, Environmental Studies, History, Management, Quantitative Business Analysis, Sociology).
Professional Internship/Research 3 sem. hrs.
Choose one of the following options:
- PSC 5V12 A student must complete three semester hours of PSC 5V12, the Graduate Internship. This involves supervised, full-time employment that combines practical field experience and research. Completion of the course requires a written report of the work done during the internship. Students must work in a public sector agency. Both the Graduate Program Director for the Political Science department and the Associate Dean of the Law School must approve all internships.
- PSC 5395 Professional Paper in a Public Policy and Administration topic.
Total required 24 sem. hrs. of Political Science